Great Performances

"Great Performances" is brought to you by... I read the news today, oh, boy 4,000 holes... Magical Mystery Tour could only have been made in a climate that the Beatles had themselves created. I'd love to turn you on

FONDA

We had our own art, we had our own music. Everything. We had all these... Whoa -- we don't have our own film.

McCARTNEY

It wasn't the kind of thing we could do a disclaimer before and say, "Ladies and gentlemen, what you are about to see is the product of our imaginations, and believe me, at this point, they're quite vivid."

Cheering

MAN

End number, applause. Clapping, all the rest of it -- cut. MAN #2: Take One. MAN #3: Now everyone, try and look very, uh...

Voice fading

Crowd murmuring

MAN

MAN #4: Quiet! MAN #3: Everybody, run out past the cameras. Go!

Crowd cheering

MAN

If you look to your left, ladies and gentlemen, the view is not very inspiring, ahhh, but if you look to your right...

STARR

We had to get on the bus, that was the first thing. We had to get on the bus and go on a Magical Mystery Tour, and it had all been decorated, and with the couriers, it was like loaded, the bus, when we got on.

Car horn blares

STARR

Who is that man?

"I Am the Walrus"plays

Radio dial spinning

STARR

...give the letters which thou findest about me to Edmund Earl of Gloucester. This picture probably reflects their state of mind more than anything else they had done at the time. That's the way they perceived the world around them. I am the eggman Ooh! They are the eggmen For me, the freedom of the picture was something that was very very important, the sense of breaking all the form. Obviously some of it I didn't quite understand in terms of the humor, but it was the way it was in those days. I mean, people were trying everything, and whether it fully succeeded or not was really beside the point. Let me take you down 'Cause I'm going to Strawberry fields Nothing is real And nothing to get hung about Strawberry fields forever Magical Mystery Tour comes out after one of the greatest years of domination the record industry had ever known. Misunderstanding all you see It's getting hard to be someone But it all works out It doesn't matter much to me Let me take you down 'Cause I'm going to Strawberry fields The Beatles had three singles that year, all of which were number ones. In Penny Lane, there is a barber showing photographs Of ev'ry head he's had the pleasure to have known "Penny Lane"was the A-side in America. "Strawberry Fields Forever" was the B-side and got to number eight, "Penny Lane"got to number one. On the corner is a banker with a motorcar The little children laugh at him behind his back And the banker never wears a mac In the pouring rain Very strange Penny Lane is in my ears And in my eyes Then in June, "Sergeant Pepper," of course, number one for the entire summer. Woke up, fell out of bed Dragged a comb across my head Found my way downstairs and drank a cup And looking up, I noticed I was late Found my coat and grabbed my hat Made the bus in seconds flat Found my way upstairs and had a smoke Somebody spoke and I went into a dream Ahhh-ahh-ah Ah-ahh-ahhh... The almost amazing thing was, a month after "Sergeant Pepper," "All You Need is Love," of course, another number one. Love, love, love Love, love, love Love, love, love

MAN

We were never disappointed, particularly that year, '67, to be doing the "All You Need is Love"television broadcast, to be Britain's representative around the world, and you've got this song that nobody else has ever heard and play it for the first time in front of millions of people. I mean, it's just... A, an extraordinary opportunity and, B, brilliantly pulled off because you can have the opportunity to come up with a song called "My Dad's called Burt," and nobody ever hears it again, which is sad because it's a great song, but, uh... It's easy All you need is love All you need is love All you need is love, love Love is all you need So then, Christmas, "Hello Goodbye,"number one. You say yes I say no You say stop I say go go go Oh, no You say goodbye and I say hello It was an amazing year for them so, of course, the minute that you got your hands on "Magical Mystery Tour," you wanted to listen to every single track, because they were coming off of "Sergeant Pepper" and "All You Need is Love."

WEATHERMAN

In Scotland and Northern Ireland, there'll be slight frost leading to icy patches on roads around dawn. Afternoon temperatures will range from 5 degrees centigrade, 41 Fahrenheit, in northern Scotland, to about 8 degrees centigrade, 46 Fahrenheit, in southern England. "The Val Doonican Show!" "Top of the Pops." These are just some of the BBC programmes this Christmas.

Applause

WEATHERMAN

I'm in with the in crowd I go where the in crowd goes I'm in with the in crowd And I know what the in crowd knows

MAN

In my family, Boxing Day was more often the party day really, lots of relatives around.

WOMAN

Aunties and uncles, and my sisters and brothers would have all been over, having had their Christmas at home together, and then over to us on the Boxing Day. It was tradition for us to go into the neighbour's house on Boxing Day and we used to play Monopoly in the afternoon, and I was always allowed a snowball with Advocaat and lemonade in, that was my treat.

MAN

The Christmas schedule is always one of these difficult things to get together, and on that particular year in 1967, I had a gap on Boxing Day. And suddenly I got a hear of this film, "The Magical Mystery Tour." It was described to me as a film made by The Beatles, containing the Beatles, and containing a lot of music, and that, as far as I was concerned, was good enough. Roll up, roll up for the Magical Mystery Tour! Step right this way! Roll up

BARTLETT

Sitting in front of the television, very very close to the screen, no clue who was in the room with me apart from my dad, because he seriously didn't like The Beatles and he spent most of his time grunting and saying it was a load of rubbish. "Why don't you turn it over and why don't you talk to the visitors because we've got guests."

DICKINS

My dad said, "They should get their hair cut," and I said, "Dad, you know Jesus had long hair, don't you?" And he just didn't know what to say.

SMITH

My parents didn't like it, my dad thought it was rubbish, and I'm pretty sure he turned it off before the end.

MAN

I loved it, it was a great movie, to see The Beatles doing something different, as wizards and all that sort of thing.

WOMAN

I was 15 years old. I remember we sat and we watched it right the way through in silence, and afterwards we just looked at each other and we said, "What was all that about?" That was the beginning of the end of their innocence to me and my innocence.

FROST

I liked it, with reservations and so on, but why were people so puzzled by it, do you think?

McCARTNEY

I think they thought it was bitty, which it was a bit, you know, but it was supposed to be like that. I think a lot of people were looking for a plot, and there wasn't one. I think the younger people would get it, the people who knew what was going on in society would get it, and the older people, who were expecting "Morecambe and Wise" or a British variety show, wouldn't get it, and I think, in a way, quite rightly would be annoyed. It was like they'd been cheated out of their Christmas special.

ANNOUNCER

There was, it seemed, very little magic about this particular mystery tour, most reporting viewers, in fact, finding it virtually incomprehensible. "There was no theme or storyline,"they complained, the programme appearing to consist of confused, disconnected shots of the weirdest things and suggesting a nightmare rather than a mystery tour. The following are just a few of the many outraged comments.

MAN

The biggest waste of money since the Groundnut Scheme.

WOMAN

Positively the worst programme I can remember seeing on any TV channel.

ANNOUNCER

The small minority who did enjoy the programme hailed it as something completely different. A schoolboy had this to say -- "It was one of the best Christmas programmes we have had for a long time. The idea was clever as well as original. It was very funny in parts, a marvellous programme in black and white -- in colour it would be indescribable."

GILLIAM

'67, they arrived. I thought it was kind of a dream come true, because it was like a gigantic... the part that I was focused on was a gigantic costume ball, it seemed to me. People were just dressed outrageously, beautifully. I want to do some gold breeches down to the knee, but with buttons from about there upwards. What is this thing you've got here? This button? That, it's... a button that's green. Yeah, I can see it's green. Yeah, but it means "go." Instead of, you know, all the other buttons that people wear that've got messages on them. This one just says "go ahead" because it's green. What I loved was the contrast between the new generation, the music world, and the bowler-hatted, pinstriped city gents. Everything seemed to be nicely defined, which, of course, for an American, was fresh, because America, everything is supposed to be equal so people camouflage the differences; in England it was very clear what the differences were. And that's an invitation Roll up for the mystery tour

MERTON

When they first toured, they were touring with comedians and singers and stuff and it was part of a show biz package deal. So that was what, '63 they were doing that. So in the space of four years, which is nothing, we're in the world of Sergeant Pepper and kaftans and incense and San Francisco and all that kind of thing, so I should imagine some members of the Establishment were rather sort of perturbed, because it looked to them like The Beatles had gone from being "take that"to "take this,"or something. The entire nation had been let down by The Beatles. They hated it, at least the people who wrote in the newspaper hated it, you know. They, um... Don't forget that, with all the success we'd had, every time something came out, a new record or whatever, they'd all try and slam it so that, you know, because once they'd built you up that high, all they can do is knock you back down again. I mean that's what happens, that's life. So they really didn't like it, but it's understandable too because it wasn't a brilliant scripted thing that was executed well, it was like a little home movie, really, an elaborate home movie. La-la-la-la-la La-la-la-la-la... I would guess that the majority of the American population did not know that Magical Mystery Tour had been a television film. True Beatle fans would know, but because it was so far away and so distant, they didn't seem to care that much because, after all, everybody has television shows, so maybe this is just one we missed. I did get to see it, but I was in the incredibly small minority. Most Beatle fans never saw it, and probably have not seen it till this day. Now shut up! Shut up? I've had enough of it! I can't stand it anymore! I'm gettin' off! Off! Don't get historical!

STARR

It was Paul's idea, really. We were hanging out in the studio, you know, looking for stuff to do, really, and he came up with this idea, he said, "Look! I've got this idea!"

Chuckles

STARR

And we said, "Great!" And, uh... it actually moved from that circle to this... to this! When a man buys a ticket for a Magical Mystery Tour, he knows what to expect. We guarantee him the trip of a lifetime, and that's just what he gets. The incredible Magical Mystery Tour! It was basically a charabanc trip which people used to go on from Liverpool to see the Blackpool Lights, and they'd get loads of crates of beer and an accordion player. When Irish eyes are smiling All the coach trips I went on to Blackpool, the lights were very fuzzy... but that's another story!

Accordion playing, rhythmical clapping

"The Fool on the Hill"plays

STARR

Round and round and round and round...

Man shouting nonsense commands

MAN

On your marks... get set... Go!

Tires screech

Dramatic overture plays

MAN

This time I mean it!

Tearful laughter

MAN

I... I can't breathe anymore. See how they fly, like Lucy in the sky See how they run I'm crying I'm crying When he saw Cutie, it gave him a thrill Don't you know, baby Curves can kill Death-cab for Cutie Death-cab for Cutie

GAMBACCINI

The part of "Magical Mystery Tour" that I didn't get, and which I knew Americans would also not get, were the things that were very English. For example, the concept of a Mystery Tour. America didn't have it. You had to know where you were going before you got onto a bus.

MAN

There was no attempt to say, "This is just a young people's thing." That's what's so wonderful about The Beatles. They didn't have any of that snobbism. You know, the character that plays Ringo's aunt is this big fat lady, you know, she's just kind of crazy. But that's great, there's a great deal of love there, with the old guys and the characters. And I think that was part of The Beatles aesthetic too, you know, "this isn't just us."

INNES

It was made like an art film. The small narrative of the bus sort of held it together again, but again, it wasn't... you weren't supposed to know where it was going. Very long red settee similar to this and they had a number of papers in front of them, and they were planning this film, but particularly Epstein had a pie chart and they were already planning who would do what in a film. Epstein was delighted, of course, because they'd just finished a major album, they were no longer touring. He hadn't really got a great deal to do, and he was quite clearly very enthusiastic about the whole thing.

LENNON

He was just a beautiful fella you know, and it's terrible.

MAN

What are your plans now? Well, we haven't made any, you know. I mean we've only just heard, haven't we? Epstein had a little office in an ultra modern building with a parking space underneath it, and they were all in there. I didn't know what the hell it was all about, and they said to me, "We've said to Epstein we want to make this film," and I think they thought that now that he was dead, they wanted to go ahead and make it anyway. And this was an important sort of genuflection to the work that they had done with Brian. And they did try at that point to express, they wanted to be free and easy and not be constricted by the studio system and the things that were in it. They had the opportunity and the money to do something that nobody else would have been able to do, and therefore it is a unique piece of filmmaking. You could almost call it a vanity, like a vanity publication of what they were doing, but it was more than that. Walking down a very narrow alley in the street I saw an old man a-standing by a wall Hastily I ran up to the old man And I said to him, in phrases very small Get away from the wall Get away from the wall Get away from the wall

STARR

Ivor Cutler we knew, of course, because he had those great records. Uh... I'm sure somebody saw, Nat Jackley was his name, you know, on a show or something.

Drum pounding

Speaking gibberish

Shouting nonsense commands

STARR

The other thing we used to do, at night, we'd go through the "artists need work"books. And we'd go, "Oh, yeah, he looks good!" Or, "Oh, yeah, look at that person!" And we'd just pick 'em out the book. Okay! Oh, baby, you made me love you I didn't wanna do it, I didn't wanna do it

Accordion plays

Scattered applause

Whistle blows

Marching band plays

STARR

Good morning, lads and lasses. My name is Miss Winters. I just wanted to say, if there's anything I can do to be of assistance, well, you know what to do.

WOMAN

I think what happened with The Beatles was, if you were around, you were on the bus, you know. If you'd been wherever the bus set off from that day and they thought you were all right, you'd have been on the bus. "Would you like to come on a coach trip with The Beatles?" "They're making a film." That's it, that's all we knew. I think we had two days' notice. Yeah, we got it on the Friday and had to go on the Monday.

MAN

Nobody would have believed them... I'd left my job on the Friday, and I didn't go back on the Monday, and I did lose it, but it was worth it. Yeah. Take one. I don't know the rest of the words. You can "la la"it, darling. Yeah, just sing, and if you don't know the words... Are we on? Yeah, we're running. Oh, yesterday... Do you like your old Auntie, darling? Oh, you're all right, you're one of the best. All my troubles seemed so far away

FONDA

That bus was hysterical! All the people on the bus too, whoa, what a great thought! And that's an invitation

SCORSESE

There was something very musical, very dancelike about the editing of the Magical Mystery Tour number, the bus. Freedom of the camera, along with the restraint of the characters looking toward the lens. For me this has always stayed, and it's one of my favorite moments in movies. And that's stayed with me over the years, and I think, actually looking back at it, has influenced a lot of the work I've done.

Indistinct conversation

AUNT

Shut your eyes...

MAN

We're going.

Laughter

MAN

Listen, this film. Oh yeah. Tell me something about the storyline.

LENNON

Well, you see, it's about a group of common or garden strange people on a coach tour, around anywhere really, and things happen to them, you see. Something will go, "Diddly dee, Magical Mystery Tour," and there's a little scene. You've got them! I've got what? You've got them on your head. Where are they? Do you want to knock them off? Yes. Go on, then.

Speaking gibberish

McCARTNEY

It was lovely to see John being so comfortable in playing with this little girl, but it's a side of John that you never really saw, and I must say I don't think I'd really seen it much to that point. All right, I'll put it on my hat.

STARR

I'd love to say there was this incredible master plan, but, there wasn't.

McCARTNEY

We thought it might be a good idea to go towards Cornwall, where I think we'd had fond childhood memories. I'd hitchhiked down there when I was a kid. George and I had done that.

NIGHTINGALE

I don't think we ever really were told the reasoning behind much of it. It was just, "This is going to happen, and so-and-so is gonna be doing this, and so-and-so is gonna be doing that," and we just did it... to be honest. It was, uh... "spontaneous,"I think, is the word. Yes. That's a very good word, yeah.

CROWLEY

You didn't have time to think about it because it was all sort of happening, but if you analyzed what was happening, you really didn't know anyway, did you? Couldn't put your finger on what was happening.

Laughter, singing

MILES

Paul always had a tremendous interest in spontaneity and random events and effects, but random in his sense would be an accidental trick of the light or a superimposition. Oh-ohh-ohh-ohhh... Round and round and round and round and round He never listens to them He knows that they're the fools This is the story of your lives! The old dreams, the left placenta...

McCARTNEY

I had a period of a few years when I was living in London and I wasn't married like the other guys. They were living outside of London, so I would kind of probably see more cinema, see more theatre, go to more events, just because I was there. And one of the things that I got was a super 8 camera. Started off just doing snapshots, doing your home movies to go on holiday. But then I got more and more interested in it, and I found one that you could rewind so you could then go through again. I did a film that I wish I had now which was out of my hotel window in Paris. I filmed a gendarme on traffic duty and he's just stopping all the cars, so that was one roll through, and then the second time, he'd gone, so I then just filmed all the traffic. So it looked like this impossible job where the traffic was just going through him all the time, which was nice enough for ten minutes, it was amusing enough for me. But then the nice thing was I found a soundtrack with a jazz saxophonist called Albert Ayler who did a wonky version of the Marseillaise, so while this guy is "Oh non non non, monsieur! Oh-la-la-la..." You hear this...

IMITATING SAX

McCARTNEY

Yeah, I was doing a lot of that. And I think that was part of why I wanted to do "Magical Mystery Tour."

MILES

McCartney always had his antennae out, so those would be the avant-garde things he would do, but he would also go to the various sort of night clubs and hear torch singers -- and he used those actual words, that he always had his "antennae out," and stuff would go in and it might not come out for years and years. They've got all these rules for everything, rules of how to live, how to paint, how to make music, and it's just not true anymore, you know, they don't work, all those rules. I think what happened with The Beatles is, we always thought, "Ooh, the people back home would love to know this," so we felt like we were the megaphone, so if it was happening to us and we liked it, we thought, "we should let them know," because they're not down here hanging out with the artists, but it would be good to pass on the good news. It was a 50/50 thing. They were influenced by what was going on in the underground, but they themselves, by taking some of those ideas on board, spread the ideas so rapidly and so quickly through their fame, that they became sort of leaders of it, in a curious way. Keep up, please. We're following...

MAN

Well, what one could see very clearly were the sequences, but how the sequences related to each other, how they juxtaposed themselves in terms of an overall story, I could never see. There was almost like improvisation where everybody gets into the groove and then they start expanding on that, and to be honest with you, I don't remember if they mimed to playback -- I guess they did, actually. They must have, because all of a sudden, I remember the first time the sound guy testing and you hear one of the tracks booming out across the Kent countryside, it was amazing, and everybody was like galvanized, the energy that the music gave them. I am the eggman Ooh! They are the eggmen Ooh! I am the walrus, Goo goo g' joob

SERESIN

Already there was abstract qualities in their humor and writing and their approach to all sorts of stuff, and I think the film was a sort of natural progression, all came out of that culture. See how they run I'm crying I thought it was brilliant, I did. It was like anarchic. I'm crying I'm crying I'm crying

LOSEY

When we were doing, what was it, it was the "Walrus"scene or something like that, Paul got me up

about 2

00 in the morning, he said, "We want a dozen midget wrestlers for tomorrow." Dozen midgets, you know. I said, "How the hell do I get a dozen midgets down here in time to shoot tomorrow morning?" He said, "I don't know." It was worse than the Hollywood system, you know, because Hollywood had real power. But that's what I did, and they were produced.

McCARTNEY

The sequences were just suggested, often by memories from our childhood, things that we'd remembered or we'd remembered seeing or doing ourselves.

MAN

Action! So, for instance, a tug of war was something you'd see at all the village fetes, there'd often be a tug of war between the burly men of the neighborhood. So a lot of these things found their way in as ideas. I suppose the whole film has a bit of a village fete atmosphere to it.

MILES

It's all their childhood memories, all being jumbled up and juxtaposed, coming out as a series of fairly surreal images.

FONDA

Don't get upset, don't expect something other than "The Beatles." If you expect The Beatles, you're getting them, full force. They are really there, much more than they were in "Help!"and much more than they were in "A Hard Day's Night." They were really there because it was all their thing, they were shooting, they were deciding what to say, what to wear, how to do this. In that way, it was a Magical Mystery Tour of them. Sitting on a cornflake Waiting for the van to come Corporation tee shirt, stupid bloody Tuesday Man, you been a naughty boy, you let your face grow long I am the eggman Ooh! They are the eggmen Ooh! I am the walrus, Goo goo g' joo--

Calliope playing "She Loves You"

GAMBACCINI

It seems to me now that Magical Mystery Tour is an attempt to fuse those elements of quintessential Englishness which made The Beatles feel like the people they were with the advanced psychedelic elements that they had introduced into the culture. It's a graft. There's a fog upon L.A. And my friends have lost their way

STARR

Well, shooting "Blue Jay Way"was great. George had written that song because he'd stayed on Blue Jay Way in America. And I was just always interested in cameras and lenses, and I had all those prism lenses and closeup macro lenses. And in those days, thanks to...some medication, it...

Chuckles

STARR

was the most exciting thing we'd ever seen! Ask a p'liceman on the street There's so many there to meet

SCORSESE

I think you can really feel the influence of the avant-garde cinema at the time. They all took their own home movies, et cetera, and they were always experimenting with this imagery, and so it seemed natural that they would try to create something that was certainly not the traditional narrative that they had worked with in the Richard Lester films, which are quite wonderful, but in a very different way. They were almost like making their own movie paintings, music pieces, dance pieces, and it wasn't cinema, it was something else. Please don't you be very long Please don't be long

HARRISON

There was always good songs, there was a couple of good songs, and there was a few funny scenes. I mean, the scene to me that stands out is the one of John shovelling the spaghetti onto the fat woman's plate. I mean, that was the best bit of the movie for me.

LENNON

Paul showed me what his idea was and this is how it went, it went round like this, the story, and the production, and he said, "Now here's the segment, you write a little piece for that." I thought, "I've never made a film, what's he mean?" He said, "Write a script," so I ran off and wrote the dream sequence for the fat woman and the thing with the spaghetti and all that.

Lady laughing, sobbing

MAN

Action!

LOSEY

John and Paul basically would put their heads together and come back and they'd say, "Right, this is what we want to do tomorrow." Something as simple as, you know, half a ton of spaghetti, and you have to get George Cook out of bed and say, "George, first thing you do is send your buyer down to get as much spaghetti as there is."

SERESIN

I do remember watching John on rehearsal or whatever and the pleasure he got, like a kid playing in mud, slopping out all this spaghetti on that woman.

Accordion plays

WOMAN

There are bits that are silly and a bit self-indulgent, but on the other hand it's not pretentious. I don't think they ever were. They always managed to keep the right side of that line. And where you had Paul wanting to reflect his background, John would come along, literally Spaniard in the works, and give it that edge and made it sinister, and bits of Magical Mystery Tour are actually quite frightening, and quite scary, and that's John. I can hardly get my breath! It's intake, Jessie, not output. I am, I am! I am already! Three times this week already! For goodness' sake, Jessie, sit down. Remember! When you talk about Bunuel, everyone was so shocked to see that shot of him apparently cutting an eye. And I remember how shocking it was to see that. Now you look back on it and go, "That was a very important thing in the history of cinema." You probably couldn't have had "Psycho"without that. And that's the nice thing that happens with these things. I mean I don't want to elevate "Magical Mystery Tour" to the great heights of, you know, the most important things in cinema history, but I think in a lesser way, it did set a tone that then people could pick up and sort of say, "Well, if they've done that, we could do this."

SOMBER CHORUS

Oooh-ooh-ooh

MERTON

It's not worrying too much about your public image at that point, I think, it's about what you want to do. Here's an opportunity to make a film. What do you want to put in this film, what scene do you want to do? So I admire it from that point of view.

WINTERS

Ladies and gentlemen, when the coach stops, would the gentlemen please follow Mr Johnson and the ladies stay with me.

MERTON

It is immensely entertaining because you don't know where it's going to go next. Suddenly you're in a strip club. Come on, where are they?

INNES

I do remember Viv being rather sort of miffed at the thought, you know, because Paul suggested he wore a kind of chiffon-ey scarf to look more trendy, and I don't think Viv took kindly to that, but he did it. The cab was racin' through the night Mm-mm-mm Baby, don't do it His eyes in the mirror, keepin' Cutie in sight Uh-huh-huh Baby, don't do it I think we related to them because they were mischievous and funny, but we didn't care about show business particularly. Curves can kill Death-cab for Cutie We had a lot of that kind of art school world in common. We'd all seen the art movies, we'd seen the certain paintings, we knew Magritte and things like that, and you know, when you're twenty somethings, you like them, and use them in things. And so if we had sort of robots or masks or things like that, we offered them up as images. Someone's gonna make you pay your fare Someone's gonna make You pay your fare Someone's gonna make you pay your fare Ohhh We had no idea what the film was going to be like, but there was a kind of clue in the title, you know, "Magical Mystery Tour." It's a clever title because you can pretty much do anything, you know. Death-cab for Cutie Death-cab for Cutie

MAN

I was sitting in front of my dad on the floor, he was sitting in the chair and I was like resting against the arm of the chair and the stripper came on, and as it started to get more and more risqu, I suddenly found this hankie being draped across my eyes, which was quite embarrassing for me because obviously I thought I was so grown up at 11 years old.

DICKINS

"Magical Mystery Tour," I think it was telling the older generation that things were changing, that's how I felt, that the old routines were going to change. I think probably my dad may have found it a bit scary.

Gulls calling

WOMAN

Sir, I am sorry that Mr Norman Hare disliked "Magical Mystery Tour." We are an elderly couple and had never seen or heard of The Beatles. The film entranced us and was all too short. I thought it a clever blend of all-too-real life and pure magic. They achieved the atmosphere of a coach tour perfectly, the surge of humanity from the coach at each stop, the sad wet sands of the inevitable dead low tide on West Country beaches. These and other points were cleverly heightened by the fantastic dream or nightmare sequences, also familiar to the coach tourer who has nodded off. The photography was imaginative and original and I laughed till I cried several times. But I fear they will not make another film like it, and perhaps they had better not try. Yours Faithfully, Ann Lee Michell, Mrs, Milverton, Somerset.

LOSEY

I think there is within them a kind of English idea of subversion -- rather than the American idea of subversion, of stone throwing and that sort of thing, so it's much subtler. Because England as itself is a very different place, observing it for the last 50 years as a foreigner, an outsider. The way the English respond and change is quite different from the way other nations -- They don't actually go at it head on.

MERTON

It's a sort of travelogue. It's a sort of documentary. It's a sort of slice of British working class life. It has so many goodies in it, but I can understand why Establishment felt threatened by what The Beatles were doing, because you know, if everybody grows their hair long, who's going to be in the army?...and get your bloody hair cut!

SCORSESE

For me, it certainly still holds up. The imagery was created without CGI, at a time when it was all photochemical, and some of it we may have gotten used to now. Now of course, the emphasis on professionalism and polish and politeness is very, has come back now with a vengeance. It's expected, and there's a tendency to forget that really, that's only one choice, you know, one way of going.

NIGHTINGALE

I think it's brilliant, it's just a laugh. And I don't think that's just because of our memories, I think it's just a piece of film that would be enjoyable. I don't care what the people think about it, I'm still proud to be part of it. Yes, yeah.

Accordion playing

NIGHTINGALE

How I love ya, how I love ya My dear old Swanee

GAMBACCINI

It's a charming acknowledgement, and indeed perhaps a profession, in a very positive way, of "these are the people we are, and these are the people we've become," mixed together.

STARR

Ha... Let's all get up and dance to a song That was a hit before Your mother was born Though she was born a long, long time ago God! He's the worst dancer! Ooh-ooh Your mother should know Sing it again Yeah, "Your Mother Should Know." The dancing boys, how great! Your mother was born Who choreographed that? I don't know if we did that or not. It looked too real for us, because it was all... You know, I'd like to say I did, but I don't know.

McCARTNEY

You can see that in some of the segments we'd had no idea, there's just a smiley face in number four, so that was like, "We'll think of something fun." And I think we thought that just to have an improvised film would give us a lot of freedom and would also show the kind of playfulness and the freedom that we were experiencing as The Beatles at that time. However, we realized we had to have something to show people, and when the cameraman would say, "Where do you want me to be?" you'd say, "on the coach, in the morning, 9:00," and we thought, well, that's enough information. Ooh-ooh Your mother should know Your mother should know

INNES

You know, you could argue that, oh, the Beatles caught the bus, but The Beatles didn't catch the bus, they were the bus. Roll up Roll up for the mystery tour Roll up And that's an invitation Roll up for the mystery tour Roll up To make a reservation Roll up for the mystery tour The Magical Mystery Tour Is coming to take you away Coming to take you away The Magical Mystery Tour Is dying to take you away Dying to take you away Take you today For more information on The Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour and other "Great Performances" programs, visit... And find us on Facebook. "The

Beatles

Magical Mystery Tour" is available on DVD for $19.98 plus shipping. To order, call 1-800-336-1917. Or write to the address on your screen. To make a reservation Roll up for the mystery tour The Magical Mystery Tour Is coming to take you away Coming to take you away The Magical Mystery Tour Is dying to take you away Dying to take you away Take you today